Study: In spite of ‘We Dare Defend Our Rights’ motto, Alabama not among ‘freest’ states

—

February 23, 2015

Alabama State House (Photo: Creative Commons/Jay Williams)

The John Locke Foundation has just released its latest Freedom Index, a state-by-state ranking of which state’s citizens enjoy the most liberty, and Alabama’s spot on the list may come as a bit of a surprise, especially considering the state’s motto is We Dare Defend Our Rights.

The free-market think tank measured fiscal, education, regulatory, and health care policies to determine where each state in the union ranks in overall freedom.

So, how did Alabama do? Despite the state’s reputation as a haven for small-government conservatives, the Heart of Dixie actually came in at No. 30.

Here is how the states were ranked overall:

Fiscal policy — 50 percent of the total score — measured tax burden, including income, sales, corporate, property, and unemployment taxes, as well as how much the state spends on subsidies, transfer payments, and “social insurance.”

Health care policy was weighted at 10 percent of the score, and education and regulatory policies were each weighted at 20 percent.

Alabama’s best ranking was for health care policy, where the state came in at No. 10, but its spot at No. 30 in the heavily-weighted fiscal policy category kept it farther down the list. The state ranked No. 26 in educational freedom and No. 22 in regulatory freedom.

So why did the state rank so low on fiscal policy?

Though Alabamians enjoy low property taxes, the state’s income tax, sky-high sales tax, and corporate tax probably kept it from rising higher on the economic freedom rankings. And if the Legislature passes Gov. Robert Bentley’s proposed $700 million tax hike, the state could drop even further down the list in the coming years. But government spending is where Alabama took the biggest hit. The Yellowhammer State, with the help of the federal government, spends much more on “social insurance,” like Medicaid, than it takes in.

Here are the top 10 and bottom 10 states, according to the John Locke Foundation:

1. Florida
2. Arizona
3. Indiana
4. South Dakota
5. Georgia
6. Louisiana
7. Utah
8. Oklahoma
9. New Hampshire
10. Wyoming

41. Minnesota
42. New Mexico
43. Connecticut
44. Maryland
45. Rhode Island
46. Kentucky
47. West Virginia
48. California
49. New Jersey
50. New York

So what can Alabama do to improve its score? According to the John Locke Foundation, the state should “build political momentum for reform and work out the details of workable, sustainable policies to advance fiscal, educational, regulatory, and health care freedom.”